Radiant Floor Heating in Yarmouth, Maine

Yarmouth Homes and What They Need

Yarmouth's housing is among the oldest in this part of the county. Census estimates put the median year built at 1973, about one in five homes predates 1940 and roughly two-thirds were built before 1980. Main Street, between the Upper Village and Lower Falls, is lined with captains' houses and 19th-century homes from the town's shipbuilding era, and the town counts a dozen properties on the National Register of Historic Places. Cousins and Littlejohn islands add shorefront houses and former summer cottages. Yarmouth also has far more variety than towns to the north, with about a quarter of its units in attached houses, condominiums and apartment buildings. Old village houses commonly have cast-iron radiators, plaster walls and nowhere easy to run ductwork, which is why boiler service and replacement is often the first heating decision here, rather than adding a ducted system.

Heating and Cooling in Yarmouth

Yarmouth is the one town in this group where natural gas is a real option. Summit Natural Gas of Maine began building mains in Yarmouth, Cumberland and Falmouth after 2013, and Census estimates now show about 13 percent of Yarmouth homes heating with utility gas. Oil is still the largest fuel at roughly 56 percent, with electricity near 14 percent, propane about 13 percent and wood under 4 percent. The town sits on Casco Bay, split by the Royal River estuary, and exposed houses on Cousins Island and along the shore lose heat to steady coastal wind. On a street with a gas main, owners of oil-fired hot-water systems can weigh a gas conversion against electrification; where a new boiler is going in anyway, a high-efficiency boiler installation can keep the existing radiators while cutting fuel use, and ductless heads can add cooling upstairs.

Getting to Know Yarmouth